Cleaning inkjet printer cartridges

I have to use or clean my HP inkjet color cartridge every two weeks or
it will put white lines through the image. Is this just true of all
inkjet printers or what?

Why does the clogging produce the white lines which would imply
exactly one area on the head is clogged?

"Felix Oscar" <> wrote in message
news: m...
>I have to use or clean my HP inkjet color cartridge every two weeks or
> it will put white lines through the image. Is this just true of all
> inkjet printers or what?
>
> Why does the clogging produce the white lines which would imply
> exactly one area on the head is clogged?

This is certainly not normal. What model of printer do you have?

- Bob Headrick, not speaking for my employer HP

> >I have to use or clean my HP inkjet color cartridge every two weeks or
> > it will put white lines through the image. Is this just true of all
> > inkjet printers or what?
> >
> > Why does the clogging produce the white lines which would imply
> > exactly one area on the head is clogged?
>

It's odd I didn't see the original post on this one. An inkjet head has
tiny nozzles which push or spray paint onto paper. You can think of it as a
collection of lots of little tiny pens all squished together. When the
print head starts drying out, some of these little nozzles get clogged, so
that those specific nozzles are not transferring ink to the paper. The
result is that you have lines across the paper (usually white, as the paper
you are printing on is white) where the specific nozzles are clogged. -Dave

In article <> ,
(Felix Oscar) wrote:

> I have to use or clean my HP inkjet color cartridge every two weeks or
> it will put white lines through the image. Is this just true of all
> inkjet printers or what?
>
> Why does the clogging produce the white lines which would imply
> exactly one area on the head is clogged?

I have never had to do that with any of the Epson ink jet printers
I have owned. I clean them only once in a blue moon when I notice
the print quality is diminished.

On 28 Aug 2004 11:27:58 -0700, (Felix
Oscar) wrote:

>I have to use or clean my HP inkjet color cartridge every two weeks or
>it will put white lines through the image. Is this just true of all
>inkjet printers or what?
>
>Why does the clogging produce the white lines which would imply
>exactly one area on the head is clogged?

Do you follow the manual for turning the printer off
properly?

Many printers have a shut-down sequence that includes
parking the print head(s) against surface that prevents them
from drying out.

My printer, for example, says to ALWAYS turn the printer on
and off from its own switches -- not to just cut the power
to the printer.

Simply cutting the power can mean the print heads aren't
protected against drying out, and can then clog.

To try to avoid the next phase of printer brand wars, having worked with
many Epson printers, and literally thousands of Epson printer users, let
me just say that Epson printers vary considerably in serviceability
based upon, the environment they are used in (dry, dusty, etc), the
model of printer, and inks involved, how close the manufacturing
tolerances are so that the head caps properly on shut down, the amount
of use they get, and how well instructions are followed regarding use
and shut down.

These many factors can lead to people having very opposite results from
one another.

Art

Shawn Hearn wrote:

> In article <> ,
> (Felix Oscar) wrote:
>
>
>>I have to use or clean my HP inkjet color cartridge every two weeks or
>>it will put white lines through the image. Is this just true of all
>>inkjet printers or what?
>>
>>Why does the clogging produce the white lines which would imply
>>exactly one area on the head is clogged?
>
>
> I have never had to do that with any of the Epson ink jet printers
> I have owned. I clean them only once in a blue moon when I notice
> the print quality is diminished.

On 28 Aug 2004 11:27:58 -0700, (Felix Oscar) wrote:

>I have to use or clean my HP inkjet color cartridge every two weeks or
>it will put white lines through the image. Is this just true of all
>inkjet printers or what?
>
>Why does the clogging produce the white lines which would imply
>exactly one area on the head is clogged?


Which is one of a million reasons I will never own one of them. I
have a laser printer and a dot matrix (ribbon type) printer.

Inkjets produce poor quality, and are the most expensive printers of
all types to own, due to the cost of the inks. In fact, it is often
cheaper to buy a new printer than buy ink refills.

Shawn Hearn <> wrote in message news:<srhi->...
> In article <> ,
> (Felix Oscar) wrote:
>
> > I have to use or clean my HP inkjet color cartridge every two weeks or
> > it will put white lines through the image. Is this just true of all
> > inkjet printers or what?
> >
> > Why does the clogging produce the white lines which would imply
> > exactly one area on the head is clogged?
>
> I have never had to do that with any of the Epson ink jet printers
> I have owned. I clean them only once in a blue moon when I notice
> the print quality is diminished.

I just had a C82 Stylus go bad on me. I don't think it was clogged
print heads, but after going online to get tips on what the problem
might, I found a lot of people complaining about clogged heads on
Epsons. But even among those complaints, it appeared the biggest
cause of trouble was third party cartridges. Epson touts their
pigment based "Dura Brite" ink, and many say that the nozzles don't
tolerate substitutes well.

Inkjet nozzles, regardless of brand, will be prone to drying up and
possibly clogging after extended periods of non-use. And a couple of
weeks may be considered an "extended period" for some printers. But
hell, they can clog with regular use too - The C82 we had, and the C86
we have now will briefly pause printing to touch up the heads in the
middle of print jobs.

"Curtis CCR" <> wrote in message
news: om...
> Shawn Hearn <> wrote in message
news:<srhi->...
> > In article <> ,
> > (Felix Oscar) wrote:
> >
> > > I have to use or clean my HP inkjet color cartridge every two weeks or
> > > it will put white lines through the image. Is this just true of all
> > > inkjet printers or what?
> > >
> > > Why does the clogging produce the white lines which would imply
> > > exactly one area on the head is clogged?
> >
> > I have never had to do that with any of the Epson ink jet printers
> > I have owned. I clean them only once in a blue moon when I notice
> > the print quality is diminished.
>
> I just had a C82 Stylus go bad on me. I don't think it was clogged
> print heads, but after going online to get tips on what the problem
> might, I found a lot of people complaining about clogged heads on
> Epsons. But even among those complaints, it appeared the biggest
> cause of trouble was third party cartridges. Epson touts their
> pigment based "Dura Brite" ink, and many say that the nozzles don't
> tolerate substitutes well.
>
> Inkjet nozzles, regardless of brand, will be prone to drying up and
> possibly clogging after extended periods of non-use. And a couple of
> weeks may be considered an "extended period" for some printers. But
> hell, they can clog with regular use too - The C82 we had, and the C86
> we have now will briefly pause printing to touch up the heads in the
> middle of print jobs.

Maybe this can help EPSON users. It's not mine. I copied it off the
internet, but it has good pointers.....
First you have to realize that any Non-Epson Ink or Ink Cartridges is not
the same ink formulation as the ink in the Epson Cartridges. Epson Ink Jet
Style Printers are one of the few printers on the market that seem to have
so many problems with non-manufactors inks. Epson Printers use a completely
different printhead inking system than most other brands of printers. Epsons
"Micro Piezo Ink Jet Technology" and the ultrafine 4-picoliter ink droplets
used in most of the Epson Ink Jet Style Printers, just don't always work
well with Non-Epson Inks. Most, if not all of the other manufactors, use
thermal or bubble jetprint heads and because the other brands use a totally
different system, they don't seem to have as many problems using refilled
inks or non-manufactor's ink cartridges. No matter what anyone says, all
blacks and colors are not the same. Printer manufacters do not make
available their ink formulation and in most cases, the formulation is
patented. Any difference in the ink formulation can clog the small printhead
nozzles or damage other critical components. One individual printhead nozzle
is so tiny, that it will not accept a human hair, so you can see why they
can get clogged so easily, or even why the nozzles can be so easily damaged.
Epson has many different formulas just for its black ink, for all the
different Epson Printers, let alone for their colored inks. Generally if you
are using Non-Epson Ink Cartridges, or refilling your old cartridges, you
are using the wrong ink for your printer and sooner or later you will have
some type of problems, almost everyone does. You are taking your chances by
using Third-Party or Generic ink cartridges, or even by refilling your old
cartridges. I understand the differences in the costs of the Non-Epson Ink
and Ink Cartridges, compared to the Epson Ink Cartridges and the choice is
always yours to make. It really does not matter to me what type of ink
cartridges you decide to use in your Epson Printer...You need to run a
Nozzle Test and see how that pattern looks. If there are "Void Lines" or
"White Lines" thru the blocks of colors then you need to do the Print Head
Cleaning Cycle and then the Nozzle Test again, to try and clean out the
print heads. You may have to run several sets of these tests to try and get
rid of those void lines. If after 5 or 6 sets of tests those lines are not
gone, then you might have a bad cartridge, or a possibly clogged print head
assembly, theres no way to really know. It's possible that you may even have
an actual HARDWARE PROBLEM [parts problem], but normally the most common
problem is clogging of the print head nozzles. You might want to try using
the Epson Stylus Head Cleaning Solution, available through the home page on
"fixyourownprinter.com", at " http://fixyourownprinter.com/ ". When it
opens, click-on Epson, under PRINTER REPAIR KITS. Then click-on "Epson
Stylus Head Cleaning Solution" and that page should then open correctly. The
Epson Solution sells for around $10.00 plus shipping. It includes a syringe
and some Epson Printhead Cleaning Solution, which is designed to dissolve
most clogs, especially if you were using Epson inks. This is the same
chemical used by Epson in their service department. You can try it if you
want to and see if you can get the printhead nozzles to open up again. If
you want to see what's involved in print head cleaning, Wes has supplied a
link that might help: http://www.epsonhelp.web1000.com/printhead.html and he
also suggests trying the SSC service utility form here
http://www.ssclg.com/epsone.shtml...ON THE OTHER HAND: If that Nozzle test
comes out looking ok, then that indicates that your printer is normally
working ok. You have to realize that your printer simply receives DATA from
your Computer System, which tells it what to print. Usually, what you see on
your Monitors Screen, is close to the image that is printed out by your
printer. That image cannot always be matched exactly thru the Software Data
sent to your printer. Its possible that settings may not be correct in your
computers software, or possibly even corrupted Printer Drivers. You can
delete your old drivers and download the latest available drivers from the
Epson Home Page at http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/index.jsp . As drivers
are FREE, I usually recommend trying those first if you have a communication
problem. Bad or corrupted drivers can cause many problems. "DEINSTALL"
[remove] your old drivers/printer first and then go to the "EPSON.COM"
web-site. Look under "DRIVERS AND SUPPORT" and then click-on "DRIVERS AND
DOWNLOADS". Look under the "Ink Jet Printers" for your "Epson Stylus Photo
820" and click-on it. Once the "DOWNLOAD PAGE" opens, read the INFORMATION
to locate your particular SYSTEM [Win's 95,98,ME,2000.etc.] and then
click-on it. Follow the directions and read all the available information
concerning your systems driver downloads. Finally at the bottom of the page,
click-on "Printer Software Installation for Windows ___ [Epson Printers]",
or the "Download" option button. After the downloading utility opens, read
the download information available, make your choices and complete the
installation...Good Luck! Denny Conway...P.S. Check for an e-mail from me,
with some additional information on the print head cleaning solution, in
case you need to use it.

On Sat, 28 Aug 2004 11:27:58 -0700, Felix Oscar wrote:

> I have to use or clean my HP inkjet color cartridge every two weeks or
> it will put white lines through the image. Is this just true of all
> inkjet printers or what?
>
>
No.

> Why does the clogging produce the white lines which would imply exactly
> one area on the head is clogged?

The print head is apparently getting dirty. Find the source of the dirt.

Perhaps the paper is dirty? Some papers disintegrate and produce paper
dust which clogs HP inkjet heads. Cheap and recycled papers are notorious
for this.

A dirty environment will allow dust to get into the printer.

If you have very hard water, your clothes washer becomes a clothes grinder
and all your fabrics will produce lots of dust that goes everywhere very
quickly. You will need to put the printer somewhere there are no fabrics
and where airflow will keep dust out. Plus it should always be covered
completely when not in use.


Just remembered: Recycled cartridges and refilled cartridges also do the
same thing. I remember also a inkjet used in a totally dry environment
(0%rh) would have the print head dry out and it would have to be cleaned
before every printing.

=-=